Quebec is not exactly teeming with women wearing the chador, the full-length black cloak common in Iran that leaves only the face exposed.

No chador-clad candidate has stood for elected office here. Gazette columnist Don Macpherson wrote Friday that in more than 40 years of covering provincial politics, he has never seen a chador at a party meeting. When local newspapers need to illustrate stories about such garments, they typically use foreign photos.

Yet on Friday, the burning question in Quebec politics, threatening to rip apart the provincial Liberals, was whether someone wearing a chador should be allowed to sit in the National Assembly.

It was more collateral insanity from the Parti Québécois government’s charter of values, and Premier Pauline Marois could not have been happier.

The story began when a Presse Canadienne reporter asked Liberal secularism critic Marc Tanguay on Tuesday whether the Liberals would allow someone wearing a chador to represent them. “The question presents itself since the Liberal Party of Quebec announced its position on the wearing of religious symbols by state employees, denouncing all prohibitions as long as the face remains uncovered,” the reporter wrote.

Mr. Tanguay said “absolutely” he would be comfortable with a chador-wearing colleague. Liberal leader Philippe Couillard added the next day that as long as the garment does not cover the face, it is up to the voters to decide.

On Thursday, Liberal MNA Fatima Houda-Pepin, the only Muslim in the legislature and a fierce critic of fundamentalists, broke ranks, releasing a letter assailing her party’s position.

Have Quebec women come all this way only to take Saudi Arabia or the Ayatollahs’ Iran as a model of equality?

“Have Quebec women come all this way only to take Saudi Arabia or the Ayatollahs’ Iran as a model of the equality of men and women?” she wrote. She called the chador “the very expression of the oppression of women, as well as being the signature of radical fundamentalism.”

The broadside was the last thing Mr. Couillard needed as the Liberals maintain their opposition to the PQ values charter, which would prohibit all public-sector workers from wearing conspicuous religious symbols. Polls show the charter enjoys the support of a majority of Quebecers.

At a news conference Friday, Mr. Couillard reached out to Ms. Houda-Pepin, backtracking on the chador and saying he would not sign the nomination papers of a Liberal candidate who wore the garment. He criticized the MNA for going public with her dirty laundry instead of settling it within caucus but said she would be welcomed back if she assured her colleagues she would be a team player.

Mr. Couillard seemed baffled that the first public dissension to hit his party since he assumed the leadership last March involved a hypothetical candidate wearing an obscure cloak.

“It’s a totally artificial problem because it does not happen. It cannot happen in practice,” he said. “Firstly, nobody is going to suggest a candidacy of this type in a riding association. Secondly, wearing this sort of clothing, which is accompanied by a behaviour of social retreat, is not compatible with political life.”

Ms. Houda-Pepin said she does not agree with the PQ charter and remains a Liberal, but Ms. Marois still tried to conscript her. She called Ms. Houda-Pepin “courageous” for breaking with the Liberal line. “It’s clear that right now, Mr. Couillard, in my opinion, is not listening to Quebecers,” the Premier told Radio-Canada. By the end of the day Friday, Ms. Houda-Pepin had not responded publicly to Mr. Couillard’s invitation to return to the Liberal fold.

The obsession with the chador brings to mind the absurd code of living adopted in 2007 by the small town of Hérouxville, Que., laying down the law against a host of imagined threats posed by newcomers. Among other things, the code declared that it is forbidden to stone women, burn them alive or throw acid on them, that alcohol and dancing are permitted and that “the only time you may mask or cover your face is during Halloween.”

True, there have been no public stonings in Hérouxville since the code was adopted. For that, its authors must be proud. Similarly, if the dust ever settles over the PQ values charter, Ms. Marois will be able to look out at a chador-free National Assembly and pat herself on the back.